[Summary: this free OOo Writer 2.x (+3.x) template will format your film script to industry standards.]
Hi. My name's Al. Nice to meet ya.
I'm a prizewinning writer. That, and five bucks, will get me a cuppa joe at the local Starbucks.
[If you can't see several dozen lines of text below, click here.]
My debut student film was widely hailed as "the most uncommercial piece of crap in Michigan State's history."
The film was purchased by ABC-TV's groundbreaking cyberpunk series, Max Headroom.
But do you remember Max? Nobody else does, either.
I also coauthored a book on screenwriting that was featured at the Whitney Biennial.
It tells the tale of how I met a Hungarian woman on the Internet and wrote a screenplay with her via eMail.
It also contains a bunch of the short stories that I eMailed, trying to impress her.
We eventually met face-to-face, got married, and lived happily ever after.
But the book was a dismal commercial failure and resounding critical flop.
From time to time, I advertise my services as a script doctor.
There are precious few takers.
I created my first screenplay processing system, a WordPerfect shareware extension, thirteen years ago.
The software had tons of bells and whistles.
It was a four-star Editors' Pick at ZDNet (Ziff-Davis) and generated a five-figure offer from WordPerfect's parent company.
The offer evaporated when Corel took over.
As WordPerfect's version numbers got higher, my formatters became more and more complex.
While writing my own scripts, I enjoyed playing with all those bells and whistles.
But I eventually realized they were just distracting me from the task at hand.
I mean, most screenwriters (99.999999%) don't need to keep track of scene numbers or A/B pages.
All we really need, to write a spec script, is a template to keep us from coloring outside the lines.
So I reluctantly decided it was time to abandon the bells and whistles. Besides, nobody uses WordPerfect anymore.
That's when I put together a free, no-nonsense screenwriting template for Word.
Then someone pointed out that Microsoft was starting to charge fees for "free" Word packages bundled with new computers.
And that by making Word more attractive to screenwriters, I was indirectly helping to enrich Bill Gates.
At that point, I created this basic, easy-to-use, free screenplay template for the OpenOffice.org Writer program (also free).
No frills, but complete. Elegant. Intuitive. Conforms to Cole/Haag standards.
Did I mention that it's completely FREE OF CHARGE? You spend nada. Zilch. Bupkes.
I've always liked OOo's open-source philosophy.
I like the fact that OOo can run on just about any platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, Java.
I like the fact that OOo's suite of programs will handle all my spreadsheet, presentation, math, database, image processing, etc. needs.
I like the fact that OOo is familiar; it looks and feels like software from Microsoft or Apple.
I like the fact that OOo can seamlessly import/export files in a boatload of formats, including all the popular versions of Microsoft Word.
I like the fact that OOo will automatically pop out a PDF whenever I want.
I like the fact that OOo was chosen to replace Microsoft Office on the 58 public computers at my local library.
I like the fact that OOo Writer is now the only full-featured word processor that will easily format a screenplay at no cost whatsoever.
And I really like being a part of this effort to help aspiring screenwriters save their hard-earned dough.
I hope you'll enjoy using the template.
Here's a step-by-step primer:
1) Download and install the latest free OpenOffice.org suite.
2) If you have a slow connection, make sure to use the "md5sums" link on the right of that download page, in conjunction with a download manager program (I used freedownloadmanager.org and clicked Advanced, Integrity).
3) Then download the free scr2.ott template by clicking the "Get it!" button, below.
4) Save the template in OOo's Templates folder. I put mine here:
C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.4\share\template\en-US
5) Open OOo Writer and click File, New, Templates and Documents, Templates, My Templates (double-click), Scr2 (double-click).
6) Write your movie. And don't forget to invite me to the premiere.
Operating System: System Independent
Date: 2008-Jun-21
Size: 14.84 KB
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Comments
Downloading Scriptwriter
Everytime I click on the "Get It" button I get sent to your website (http://www.9timezones.com/w/avails.htm) where I don't see any download link and my download never starts. A new window opens up (in my browser) and the only text is "Screenwright(R) screenplay formatting template version 1.2.1", which appears to be a link but when I click on it...nothing happens. What am I doing wrong? I really would like this extenson for my OOo Writer.
Download instructions:
After you click the button, this website (extensions.services.openoffice.org) has a download mechanism which should open a browser window that looks like this:
Thank you!
Your download will start automatically.
Click here to start the download manually.
You should be redirected to a page with important additional informations.
Click here to go on manually.
Go back to extension.
The window includes a manual download link on the first (not second) occurrence of the word "here." This website is also designed to open my webpage in a separate browser window. But I've heard that some browsers experience problems with the download mechanism, so you can also try Firefox, Safari or Explorer. I hope this helps. -Alan
LATER: I tried all three browsers, and they work well... except Explorer. Microsoft evidently feels that you shouldn't be offered a choice about saving or opening this download, so it just arbitrarily opens the file for you! Therefore, when you see "Screenwright(R) screenplay formatting template version 1.2.1," you're actually looking at the template itself. And when you click the blue diskette icon at the left side of the line above that text, you can rejoin the step-by-step primer at step 4. Thanks for pointing out this Explorer anomaly.
Personalization
J.G. from Lakewood, Colorado asks about generating a personalized version of the scr2.ott template: [1] insert your name/address/etc., [2] delete unwanted text and links, [3] save the revisions in a new template (File, Templates, Save, scr2a, OK).
After saving my personalized scr2a template, I expected it to be in the same Templates folder with scr2.ott:
C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.4\share\template\en-US
But I was wrong. OOo Writer hid it in this folder instead:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org2\user\template
I nearly tore out all my hair, trying to find it, so I'll save J.G. a bit of hair loss by sharing the path here...
PS: Check out the [users] mailing list thread!
Using your iPod to write screenplays.
[You can also use your thumb/flash drive, mp3 player, or favorite USB storage device.] It's a snap:
A) At the bottom of your iPod's "Summary" tab in iTunes, check the "Enable disk use" box, and click the "Apply" button.
B) Download and install the latest free OpenOffice.org Portable suite on your iPod.
C) Download and install this free scr2.ott template on your iPod - I put mine here:
X:\OpenOfficePortable\App\openoffice\share\template\en-US
When we stay in Tucson with my wife's friend--who has a Windows computer, but no Internet connection--I keep myself entertained by working on my latest screenplay or just kicking back and listening to some music (perhaps Mark Knopfler's Screenplaying). I can also use the iPod to revise my script on the public computers in: (1) my local library, (2) London's Heathrow airport, (3) Beijing's cyber-cafés, etc.
PS: My iPod is one of the smallest models, an old 2GB Nano. I had already loaded nearly 18 hours of music (201 songs) and 33 photos onto it. Now that it contains the OpenOffice.org Portable software and my screenplay, it still shows over 606MB (33%) of free space.
Spacing issue addressed in release 1.2
FYI, Heading 5 (Ctrl+5) now automatically applies the formatting recommended in this earlier solution:
S.H. from Hollywood, California mentions that an extra blank line above the slugline is required by some of the prodcos where he submits: [1] ignore the first INT. or EXT. slugline (just below the FADE IN:), [2] locate the second slugline (Edit, Find & Replace, T. , Match case, Find), [3] adjust the spacing and flow (Format, Paragraph, Indents & Spacing, Above paragraph, .17, Text Flow, Keep with next paragraph, OK), [4] find the next slugline (Ctrl+F, Enter), [5] repeat the last command (Ctrl+Shift+Y).
PS: Check out the [ext-users] mailing list thread, about the "Get OOo Extensions" banner!